OptionsXpress: Out of the Money?

There is reason to be skeptical about claims made by Optionetics, a trading-seminar outfit that optionsXpress hopes will lure customers.

WHEN GEORGE FONTANILLS E-MAILED ME ABOUT his high-profit, low-risk strategies to make money regardless of market direction, I resolved to take in a free workshop from Optionetics, the outfit that's shared Fontanills' trading secrets with 336,000 people since 1993. Optionetics had been acquired in May by online broker optionsXpress Holdings as a way to revive the broker's account growth and its share price (ticker: OXPS). OptionsXpress shares lost two-thirds of their value after a 10-year boom in options trading subsided last year. This year the stock has sprung back twice as much as the market -- to a recent $17.52...